During this observation, focus on how class begins. Where is your CT before class begins? What is he or she doing? Using the clock on the wall, determine when your CT establishes order and begins class. How did she/he start their lesson? How is homework from the previous night reviewed/collected/assessed? How does your CT engage students during the opening of the lesson? Is the approach your CT used during this lesson consistent with what you know about how students learn?
Observations:
Prior to the bell to begin class, Mrs. Cykert is standing in the front of the class pulling out her homework file for this particular period. She has each period color coded and keeps all the homework to be graded or that has already been graded in colored folders in her drawer. Within the first minute or two of the bell ringing she calls the class to order -- the times it takes two minutes are usually the result of dealing with students who have come to her with questions or requests to use the restroom. Every lesson that is not an inquiry/laboratory activity or test begins with the entire class reading from Barbara Goldsmith's biography of Marie Curie, Obsessive Genius, and so the students know to grab the book from the counter by the door as they come in. As she calls the class to order, Mrs. Cykert checks that everyone has a book, announces the page and paragraph they are on and asks for a volunteer to read the first paragraph -- when there aren't any volunteers she pulls names at random from a cup that holds everyone's name on a popsicle stick. They continue to alternate student readers for about 5 minutes until they have read 2 or 3 pages. At the end of the reading, Mrs. Cykert discusses with the students any words they noted while reading that they did not know or any questions about their understanding of the passage in general for about 5 minutes. She engages the students by calling for volunteers to offer a word they didn't know, and then asks if anyone else in the class knows that word, if not then she either explains the word in her own words using the context of the text or reads them the definition from a dictionary. Once the discussion is done she tells them the questions that they need to answer on their reader log -- every day they answer one math question (usually based on a number or distance encountered in the reading), and one question about the previous days class activity (this question is not about the reading and is referred to as "old stuff") and one question about the activity and subject that they will do today (this is "new stuff"). The students have about 2 or 3 minutes to complete this activity during which Mrs. Cykert returns any homework or papers to the students, and then she has the students pass in their reading logs and any homework that is due that day.
Reflections:
I believe that Mrs. Cykert's beginning of class routine is indicative of a community-centered approach to science education. The use of a daily reading of related literature and using that literature to explore vocabulary and understanding of themes encourages the students to use metacognative strategies in all their reading. They are rewarded for inquiring about terms and themes they do not understand. Additionally, the use of the "old stuff"/"new stuff" questions for the lesson content knowledge helps to activate the student's background knowledge. It gives them a chance to think about what they did the previous class period and foreshadows the topic they will discuss or focus on during that class period. Often times the "old stuff" question is the same or very similar to the previous day's "new stuff" question to allow the students to look back at what they thought before learning about the topic and then realize whether or not it was correct now that they had covered it in class. The routine nature of this introductory class activity helps the students to be able to predict the schedule for each class and be actively engaged within just a minute or two instead of spending the first five minutes or more looking for homework, asking questions and talking amongst themselves. I really like the idea of using group reading during science class and am now actively looking into other possible books, stories or articles that I could use in my own classroom.
Class Topic: Chemistry -- Continued discussion of chemical vs. physical changes Grade: 10, 11, 12 Observed by: Sarah Evans
Observations:
Prior to the bell to begin class, Mrs. Cykert is standing in the front of the class pulling out her homework file for this particular period. She has each period color coded and keeps all the homework to be graded or that has already been graded in colored folders in her drawer. Within the first minute or two of the bell ringing she calls the class to order -- the times it takes two minutes are usually the result of dealing with students who have come to her with questions or requests to use the restroom. Every lesson that is not an inquiry/laboratory activity or test begins with the entire class reading from Barbara Goldsmith's biography of Marie Curie, Obsessive Genius, and so the students know to grab the book from the counter by the door as they come in. As she calls the class to order, Mrs. Cykert checks that everyone has a book, announces the page and paragraph they are on and asks for a volunteer to read the first paragraph -- when there aren't any volunteers she pulls names at random from a cup that holds everyone's name on a popsicle stick. They continue to alternate student readers for about 5 minutes until they have read 2 or 3 pages. At the end of the reading, Mrs. Cykert discusses with the students any words they noted while reading that they did not know or any questions about their understanding of the passage in general for about 5 minutes. She engages the students by calling for volunteers to offer a word they didn't know, and then asks if anyone else in the class knows that word, if not then she either explains the word in her own words using the context of the text or reads them the definition from a dictionary. Once the discussion is done she tells them the questions that they need to answer on their reader log -- every day they answer one math question (usually based on a number or distance encountered in the reading), and one question about the previous days class activity (this question is not about the reading and is referred to as "old stuff") and one question about the activity and subject that they will do today (this is "new stuff"). The students have about 2 or 3 minutes to complete this activity during which Mrs. Cykert returns any homework or papers to the students, and then she has the students pass in their reading logs and any homework that is due that day.Reflections:
I believe that Mrs. Cykert's beginning of class routine is indicative of a community-centered approach to science education. The use of a daily reading of related literature and using that literature to explore vocabulary and understanding of themes encourages the students to use metacognative strategies in all their reading. They are rewarded for inquiring about terms and themes they do not understand. Additionally, the use of the "old stuff"/"new stuff" questions for the lesson content knowledge helps to activate the student's background knowledge. It gives them a chance to think about what they did the previous class period and foreshadows the topic they will discuss or focus on during that class period. Often times the "old stuff" question is the same or very similar to the previous day's "new stuff" question to allow the students to look back at what they thought before learning about the topic and then realize whether or not it was correct now that they had covered it in class. The routine nature of this introductory class activity helps the students to be able to predict the schedule for each class and be actively engaged within just a minute or two instead of spending the first five minutes or more looking for homework, asking questions and talking amongst themselves. I really like the idea of using group reading during science class and am now actively looking into other possible books, stories or articles that I could use in my own classroom.Class Topic: Chemistry -- Continued discussion of chemical vs. physical changes
Grade: 10, 11, 12
Observed by: Sarah Evans